Carrier battle groups push toward Soviet bastions

What role would carrier battle groups have in a war with the Soviet Union?

They would attack and pressure Soviet northern and Pacific bastions, helping NATO hunt the strategic submarines protected there.

The carriers' role is framed around striking from outside and then pushing toward protected Soviet operating areas. Those bastions sheltered strategic submarines that served as conflict-termination assets, so NATO would seek to remove them while the Soviet Navy defended them. This makes the maritime campaign heavily concentrated in northern waters rather than spread evenly across the globe.